(Montreal) The number of hospitalizations of young women for eating disorders has jumped since the start of the pandemic, reveals a report released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
Posted at 12:09 a.m.
CIHI data thus show an increase of nearly 60%, since March 2020, in hospitalizations of young women aged 10 to 17 for eating disorders.
The number of such hospitalizations per 100,000 population increased from approximately 52 in 2019-2020 to 82 in 2020-2021. At the same time, the rest of the population across the country showed a general decline in the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits for most other health problems.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Tracy Johnson, who is CIHI’s director of health system analytics. Only the sickest of sick children are admitted (to hospital) with an eating disorder. »
Medical professionals admit they do not have the resources to hospitalize all the children who would normally be hospitalized with an eating disorder, which means many are now being monitored at home, she added.
And no one really seems to understand what’s going on, Ms.me Johnson.
We asked the question a lot. The data consistently shows that all Canadians, in all age groups, have faced mental health challenges during (the pandemic), and it looks like eating disorders are sort of an indicator for kids, but nobody can explain why.
Tracy Johnson, Director, Health System Analytics, CIHI
Factors such as social isolation, the absence of programs to encourage healthy eating and the disappearance of school activities during the pandemic are implicated, but these are only hypotheses.
Young women aged 15 to 17 were twice as likely to be hospitalized for an eating disorder as young men.
This is part of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the mental health of children and youth, said CIHI, which believes that “the surge in hospitalizations among young people due to of eating disorders observed during the pandemic is striking and worrying”.
Better off, less well off
CIHI data shows that young people from lower-income neighborhoods were more likely to be hospitalized and visit the emergency room due to mental health conditions than those from more affluent neighborhoods.
Conversely, in terms of hospital care provided to young people due to eating disorders, the number of hospitalizations for young people from more affluent neighborhoods was twice as high as for young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
“What we’re seeing here is maybe you have less access to care if you’re less well off,” said Ms.me Johnson. It could very well be more a question of access to care than a question of the prevalence of the disease. »
Health professionals are hammering home the importance of identifying as quickly as possible, since intervention during the first two years results in a 90% success rate in freeing young people from their eating disorders.
CIHI hopes that the release of this data will expose not only the existence of the problem, but also its magnitude, leading to greater vigilance on the part of adults around young people.
“Depending on the type of eating disorder, young people can hide it, recalled in closing Tracy Johnson. But young people’s hypervigilance about diet and physical activity can become more evident when you think about it. »